Mike Dill/The TimesS.W.A.T. team members walk by a New Jersey State Police helicopter in Ewing Township near the Versailles Apartments on Sullivan Way in Ewing Township, New Jersey where alleged gunman Wayne Voorhees barricaded himself after allegedly shooting Timothy Rivella and firing at police on Wednesday, July 14, 2011.

EWING — Police did not try to move a shooting victim left lying in a parking lot for hours during last Thursday’s standoff with a gunman because they examined him shortly after the shooting and concluded he was dead, authorities said yesterday.They said their priority was to move others to safety.

“They went to the victim first and realized he was deceased, and then moved on,” New Jersey State Police spokesman Sgt. Steve Jones said.

Timothy Rivella, 24, of the Versailles apartments on Sullivan Way, where the shooting occurred, died from a single shotgun blast to the abdomen, officials said.

Wayne Voorhees, 50, also of the Versailles, faces murder and weapons charges in the slaying, believed to have been sparked by a dispute over a parking space. Voorhees allegedly shot Rivella, then took refuge in his second floor apartment until police were able to storm it 7½ hours later.

As soon as authorities had made it into Voorhees’ apartment, medics rushed to Rivella’s side. He had taken nine pellets of buckshot, Mercer County Prosecutor Joe Bocchini said, and his abdominal aorta had been ruptured.

“Based on the autopsy, he wouldn’t have survived even if medical help had been seconds away,” the prosecutor said.

Some witnesses to the standoff last week have wondered whether the police could have done more to aid Rivella.

As Voorhees sat barricaded in his apartment, a tactical unit from the state police moved into the parking lot below to check on Rivella, officials said.

Knowing Voorhees had the high ground and could open fire at any moment, the members of the unit approached carefully and made a quick physical examination of Rivella’s body before departing in their van, officials said.

If Rivella had been found to have even a faint pulse, every effort would have been made to get him to safety immediately, Jones said.

Yet they did not remove Rivella’s body for both tactical and safety reasons — “because of the vantage point or because his body was in a dangerous location,” Jones said. “The vantage point from the apartment made it dangerous to send people there.”

The state police armored car was on the scene, but was not used because even it could not guarantee safety, he said.

“Rounds ricochet and you can’t seal off the entire parking lot,” Jones said. “That’s just too risky.”
Instead, scene commanders directed their efforts to moving residents to a designated “safe zone” as they monitored Voorhees’ actions.

“It was clear that the state police knew exactly what they were doing,” said Bocchini, who spent nearly seven hours in the command post near the Versailles that day. “The operation as far as tactical was concerned, they brought teams in, they brought teams out. There was a major concern of the removal of tenants from the facility.”

Residents who were stranded in their apartments were guided out by members of the state police SWAT unit, called Technical Emergency And Mission Specialists or TEAMS, under the command of Capt. Dave Mitten.

Since the TEAMS members are not medics, Rivella could not be declared officially dead until the standoff was over. The county medical examiner then took possession of the body for the autopsy.

Tucker Thompson, a resident of the complex who was there when the shooting began, said she believed the officers acted correctly.

“I think he must’ve been dead from the beginning,” she said of Rivella.
Peering out into the parking lot after hearing gunfire, Thompson said she saw Rivella, bleeding from head, prone on the ground. The sight of the blood made her run inside.

“Nobody was there. There were no ambulances, not any police,” she said yesterday. “It felt to me very much that I was very much alone. And I was scared out of my mind.”

Only two residents were brought out of the complex immediately, for what authorities said were health reasons.

But after TEAMS members were able to go inside the building where Voorhees was located and secure the second floor hallway that led to his apartment, the removal of residents began to go much more smoothly, Bocchini said.

Small cameras called Gyro Balls, which have their own stabilization mechanisms, were thrown into Voorhees’ window to broadcast video on his movements back to police, according to Bocchini.

After spending hours unsuccessfully trying to communicate with him by phone and bullhorn, the officers fired tear gas into the apartment, stormed the building and took Voorhees into custody.

The suspected shooter had a gunshot wound to his head, the result of a botched suicide attempt with a .30 caliber rifle early in the siege, officials said. He was taken to Capital Health Regional Medical Center and remained there yesterday in fair condition, according to a hospital spokesman.

Voorhees was arraigned at his bedside on murder and weapons charges by a Ewing Municipal Court judge, Bocchini said.